Looking through the simulator on iOS 11 on an iPhone X the genesis for the safeAreaLayoutGuide API became so obvious to me. To account for the notch and the rounded corners of the screen, Apple added information about the sides of the screen as well as the top and bottom for us to use. (The latter being conveyed in the now deprecated topLayoutGuide and bottomLayoutGuide). I’m still not exactly sure how to “embrace the notch” in my projects though.